The Cultural Philosophy Turn Of Western Marxism

Western Marxism, born in 20th Century, has changed its focus to the culture and the ideological field from the Immaterial Production one, so some scholars point out that there it is the"Cultural Philosophy Turn"of Western Marxism. Nevertheless, the"turn"is decided by both the researching tradition and the criteria, which is not an easy question. So is there the turn? First, the article defines the concepts of"Western Marxism","cultural philosophy"and"turn", and then it discusses the differences of the classical Marxism and the Western Marxism, found by Lukas, to normalize the using of"turn"and research the huge function of it. The article also explores the social and historical reasons to absorb the reasonableness of Western Marxism.Part oneAs the important development of Marxism Philosophy, the Western Marxism has changed its focus to the culture and the ideological field from the Immaterial Production field. Therefore, some scholars point out that it is the"Cultural Philosophy Turn"of Western Marxism. The first one that used the judgment is the Marxism researcher in England, named Perry Anderson, and some scholars in China are for it, too. But does exist the"Cultural Philosophy Turn"of Western Marxism?First, the article does the research of concepts, such as"Western Marxism""cultural philosophy"and"turn", and the standard of"Cultural Philosophy Turn".It percises the concept of"Western Marxism",which means the school, existed in western world in 20th century, which puts its view on criticizing the western. Meanwhile, it has developed the Marxism by reviewing the human existence problem. The"Cultural Philosophy Turn"mainly means the changing of the subject of the philosophy. It holds up the subjectivity principle and changes the philosophy paradigms to the human's daily life. It also makes the human existence and the cultural as the objects of reflection to reveal the nature of human and the law of culture's development. So the most important question is to judge the existence of"Cultural Philosophy Turn"of Western Marxism or not.Part twoThe classical Marxism has also developt all the time in its history and it has changed its viewpoint to the real life. At the time of , the topic of Marxism Philosophy is the self-consciousness and in the period of Rein newspaper, Marx has more chances to contact the real life to do research and to publish articles. At the same time, Marx'worldview has also changed a lot. The thinking of Marx in his later works walks to the real life, too. The is the manuscript when he researches the Plutonium. It is a key work in the forming of Marx'worldview and it was the first time for Marx to make the philosophy, plutonium and communism into one. In the , he demonstrates the effect of working productive labor in the development of society.He also generalizes the concept of Ideology Labor. And in the , Marx holds out that making the human's practice as the object of the philosophy and normalize the basic of the practice, which is immaterial production. Moreover, the immaterial production is the basic of the human society, which is also the power of development of the human society. Therefore, the immaterial production is the key word to understand the human society. Marx reveals the affection of the immaterial production on the human society. In the book of , Marx demonstrates that the immaterial production is the basic of the existence and the development of the human society further, social being determines social consciousness, and the relations of production must conform to the level of productive forcer. While in the late period of , Marx's researching field focuses on immaterial productions and economics life.In a word, by the analysis of Mark's works, we can see that he has changed the focus of him to the immaterial production and the economics analysis of citizen society and he has changed his philosophy focus to the society and history.Part threeIn the period of classical Marxism, the hardest problem is the scarcity of immaterial. As a result, people put their most energy to the immaterial production field. While in the period of Western Marxism, the immaterial is much full, the problems of people faced most focus on the spirit field, such as the psychology and culture. Therefore, the subjects of the philosophy have also changed. Western Marxism puts its researching field onto the Ideology from the Immaterial Production. In this chapter, we shall discuss the character of Western Marxism and the relation between the classical Marxism and the Western Marxism.The first one we choose is Lukas .He holds that in the capital society, the development of commodity economics leads to materialization. And the materialization is everywhere, it makes the word broken up and lost the totality. If we want to rebuild the totality, we can only pin our hope on the arousal of proletariat's consciousness. Lukas inherits the research tradition of classical Marxism, at the same time, he unites it with the theories and the times, and he initiates the new researching tradition that focus more on the couture, society and capital. While Gramsci holds up his"Cultural hegemony", which means the hegemony in the culture, the ethic and the ideology of some social groupings. Gramsci thinks that we can win the war by the clerisy with the mean of positional fighting. It is obvious that his focus is how to win the war. In addition, it is that how to get the Cultural hegemony. So his philosophy interest has changed to the culture field, his thinking is certainly could be called a culture philosophy.Frankfurt school is the representation with the most criticism. They emphasize particularly on the technical rational criticism and the critic theory of mass culture. Frankfurt school thinks that both the advancement of the science and technology and the increasing of the corporeal property cause the protrusion of the tantalization in the western world. The individual needs have been controlled. The society has been the one-dimensional society and the man has been the one-dimensional man. The purpose of their society criticism ,the instrumental rationality criticism and the mass culture criticism is to arouse the individual needs in the mind to antagonize the tantalization of the society ,to stick up for the individual freedom ,value and dignity. From, another representation of Western Marxism, who is different from the Frankfurt school, focuses on the men's mentality. In his famous work, , he reveals the contradiction between the man's independence and aloneness. "Freedom" in modern life there became unbearable burden; therefore, people do everything possible to evade front freedom to solve this aloneness. In"finding itself ", the Sequel of , From said escaping from their predicament is not a real way. Modern people can find a more positive one that is his "Human Ethics". It can realize the purpose of both their individuality to achieve independence and a close relationship with others. The analysis above shows that Western Marxism inherit ants the tradition of classical Marxism, and at the same time, it plays its special effect. Western Marxism mainly focuses on the cultural and social life. Therefore, it shows that Western Marxism has changed its attention from the classical period of the social history of Marxism, to the more specific field of culture, and it concerns the situation and the culture more directly.In the "to explore Western Marxism ", the famous British Marxist researchers, Perry Anderson points that Western Marxist theory is much different from the classical Marxist theory. Its researching field has changed to the cultural and ideological issues. It seems that there it is the Western Marxism "cultural philosophy turn" and the change has its profound theoretical foundation certainly.Part fourWestern Linguistics'Turn in 20th century is one of the main theoretic backgrounds that bring on"Cultural Philosophy Turn". The supporters of Linguistics'Turn try to replace the former Ontology and Epistemology by the study of languages, and gradually review and criticize the whole traditional western epistemology philosophy and metaphysic. And then, Western Marxism pays more attention to Marx's Critical Spirit, and the focus of theories are turned to the fields of Cultural Ideology.Another important reason that brings on"Cultural Philosophy Turn"is the Cultural Philosophy Tradition of Marxism Philosophy's own. Thought of Marx is influenced deeply by Vico, one of the founders of Cultural Philosophy. Marx has once specially evaluated the Thought of Vico by footnote in . In the fact , the evaluation not only expresses the admiration on the ways and means of study of Vico, but also is the representation of Marx's attitude on Philosophy History ,which is"the history of Human being is created by ourselves".Now that so-called"Cultural Philosophy Turn"of Western Marxism has happened actually, what is the meaning of"the Turn"? In first, Western Marxism has not gone against the theory of Classical Marxism. Its focus on the fields of Cultural Philosophy is just the right hold of the contemporary Principal Contradiction. It expresses the character,"keeping up with the time", of philosophy. That Western Marxism's focus is converted to the field of Cultural Philosophy, develops the theories of Classical Marxism farther, mines out another important sparkling mind of Marxism Philosophy, and makes great supplement and contribution to the development of Marxism Philosophy. Of course , we should clearly see that , when the active role of"the Turn"is affirmed , Western Marxism puts too much energy into the fields of Cultural Philosophy , over-exaggerates the role of ideology , ignores Classical Marxism's concern on social , economic and political life . It reposes the victory of the revolutionary to empty aesthetic art and political utopia, with a strong romantic color. Therefore, we should dialectically evaluate the significance of Western Marxism's"Cultural Philosophy Turn", play its active role and efforts , overcome its deficiencies , and make certain contribution to the study of Western Marxism of China in new era .